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Issue #56
by L. Swift and Jeff McQ
The last time we caught up with Recording Connection apprentice Taylor Crommie (in our October 27 newsletter), he had completed his basic apprenticeship course at ES Audio and had returned to the Recording Connection to work on his master’s program with Matt “Linny” Linesch at United Recording in Los Angeles, CA—not to mention the slew of gigs he worked in-between, including running live audio for several bands at SXSW, composing music for smartphone apps and working with alternative indie band Breakfast.
As if he didn’t have enough to do.
We recently checked back in with Taylor, and it turns out he’s still proving what a go-getter attitude can accomplish. As he continues working through his master’s program, he’s expanding his education even further–into the world of K-pop, of all places. With the help of Recording Connection student services, Taylor has connected with yet another apprenticeship: this time with Joombas Music Group in Los Angeles, where he’s getting the chance to work some of K-pop’s up-and-coming artists, including South Korean 7-piece boy band Speed!
“I went in to Joombas as a blank slate ready to learn their formula,” says Taylor. “I love it there! The knowledge I’m gaining about K-pop and the culture behind the music is completely different then the American side of the music industry.”
At Joombas, Taylor is working closely with head engineer Marco Reyes, who has worked with K-pop artists like Exo, SHINee and Girls Generation and has produced at least a dozen hits on the K-pop charts. He’s also gotten to meet some of the company’s lead writers and producers, including noted producer Ross Lara, whose client list includes such electro artists as Daft Punk and Paul Oakenfold.
Taylor says the experience he’s gaining at Joombas is serving to expand his abilities and his range. “I don’t see K-pop as my end goal, but the learning experience has been amazing,” he says. “My mixing abilities have already increased and are only getting better and more innovative. At Joombas, I’m learning the pop formula, which is something that will help me achieve more of the commercial style. Then I get a great taste of the traditional style at United Recording [formerly Ocean Way Hollywood], which is really where my heart is.”
As for Taylor’s other projects—he still does a lot of production work for Breakfast, recently co-writing and producing the single “Diane,” inspired by the character on David Lynch’s TV series Twin Peaks. The song is currently generating a lot of interest with over 10,000 plays on SoundCloud and honorable mentions by some high-profile blogs. And almost as icing on the cake—Taylor recently got the opportunity to take a backstage tech tour with Jimi Petulla and Brian Kraft at this year’s Grammy Awards!
Even as Taylor Crommie continues making his own mark on the L.A. music scene, his ongoing story is living proof that when you put yourself in the right place at the right time, and when you say yes to as many opportunities as possible, the opportunities keep coming. One of the reasons Taylor keeps so busy is that he’s open to the opportunities that come his way, without worrying too much about a particular genre or which styles of music hold more weight.
“It’s all music,” he says. “[It’s all] how well you express yourself to your audience… I want to work with everyone and have the tools to do it! The Recording Connection is helping me reach that goal.”
Film Connection student, Derrick Robbins, is working on the 3rd draft of his screenplay, is mapping out an arch for a comedic “webisode” series of grand proportions, and is cooking up a fictional podcast about two local talk show radio hosts and the townspeople they interview for yet another project.
Film Connection student, Daryn Davidson, just finished a documentary on legendary tenor sax, Joe Henderson, and also worked with Chubby Checker on a few TV spots!
Kellie Koford, Film Connection student in Austin, TX is editing a sizzler for a speech that was done on Conscious Leadership by the founder of Whole Foods!
Brian recently met with Carmen Rizzo, a two-time GRAMMY®-nominated Producer-Remixer, Artist and Artist Relations Manager for Native Instruments, a leading manufacturer of software and hardware for computer-based music production and performance. The two met at the Native Instruments offices on Sunset Boulevard in L.A. and talked at length about the importance of learning one-on-one from in-industry professionals (like we do at the Recording Connection) and discussed new ideas on how to teach students who are also artists to brand themselves like Skrillex and Soulection artist Joe Kay.
For those of you who are not totally familiar with Carmen, he’s got one very eclectic career! From co-writing, engineering and programming material on Seal’s classic 1994 self-titled album (aka Seal II), to co-producing and co-writing Paul Oakenfold’s Bunkka album; remixing such artists as BT and Tiesto; collaborating with Tuvan Throat singers Huun Huur Tu; and co-founding the ground-breaking World Music act Niyaz, Carmen has done it all! Stay tuned for further developments with Carmen coming soon in a future issue of this newsletter!
Multi-GRAMMY® Award winning engineer/mixer/producer Al Schmitt is slated to receive a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in commemoration of his countless contributions to the music industry for his work with artists including Frank Sinatra, Paul McCartney, Madonna, Michael Bublé, Quincy Jones, Neil Young, Elvis Costello, Bob Dylan, Norah Jones and LeAnn Rimes, just to name a few. Al’s star will be located in front of the world-renowned Capitol Records building in the heart of the entertainment capital of the world, Hollywood, California.
The Recording Connection supports this milestone, and our own Jimi Petulla and Brian Kraft will be there to help commemorate this wonderful moment. As friends and associates of top figures in the close-knit core of the music industry, Brian and Jimi make a point of celebrating the personalities and accomplishments that make the community great – participating in events like this is one way to strengthen the bonds they have with the industry, and they are able to share those many networking relationships with Recording Connection program members.
“I’ve always been a kick in the pants,” says Radio Connection mentor Ed Knutson of his bigger-than-life personality. Working out of KKVV 1060-AM, a Christian talk radio station in Las Vegas, NV, Ed is a natural stickler with his students when it comes to the spoken-word side of radio, emphasizing the importance developing the voice for on-air radio work as well as building a solid working knowledge of audio editing. In a recent conversation with RRFC, Ed pulled no punches in his advice for radio apprentices looking to develop a career. Here are just a few nuggets of wisdom we mined from the conversation. (You’re welcome, radio students.)
ON PRACTICING WITH YOUR VOICE: “I want [my students] to drive around in their car reading billboards aloud…Going back to my youth, before I even got into radio, I would entertain people by reading the billboard signs… It keeps the lips moving and [helps] the pronunciation.”
ON BUILDING VOCABULARY: “The main thing is the voice and the pronunciation and speaking and saying things correctly…those kinds of basics…be driven to look up words when you need to.”
ON KNOWING THE TECHNICAL SIDE: “Know your audio editing. I don’t care if you are on the air or not, everywhere I’ve ever been in radio, you better know some basic audio editing.”
ON THE IMPORTANCE OF LEARNING ALL ASPECTS OF RADIO, NOT JUST YOUR AREA OF INTEREST: “I can understand if you have a certain genre you want to do, but let’s learn the whole ball of wax… You’ve got to learn the other stuff anyway because somebody isn’t going to go, ‘Oh, we need a talk show host…BAM!’ What they are going to ask is, ‘What have you done already?’… You’ve got to scrub the deck of the ship before you get be captain.”
ON THE FUTURE OF RADIO: “I don’t think it’s going to go away quick…I get those rags and I read that sad story, [but] I really don’t think it is. I know a lot of people that listen online and on their phones, but a lot of people still have radios in their homes [who like to] flip the switch and listen and not have to tune it in on your phone. I think it’s going to be around for years.”
ON KEEPING YOUR EDGE: “Work the creative monster within you and don’t be afraid to use [it]…You’ve got to have a creative streak or you are just going to be left behind. Work the basics all the time, do your editing and stuff like that…take some voice-over classes, subscribe to the radio rags. Find out what’s going on.”
“I believe highly in apprenticeship & mentorship as I am a result of this teaching environment. I understand a strong theoretical education works for a lot of students, but hands on experience and doing these tasks teaches hands on involvement that is hard to get. It is harder to build these bonds that are taught cooking together. This style builds confidence in the apprentice to achieve the goals to raise them above cook status into Sous Chef over a period of time through hard and smart working techniques that will empower the students to be performers, not guided by someone else’s success, but creating their own.”
— Robert W. Phillips CEC, CCA, CFSP, CC, Director of Culinary & Nutrition, MCH Deanco
The great thing about learning on-the-job is that it gives you a crash-course in learning not only how things are done, but also how industry people talk. This is something Film Connection apprentice Daniel Outhier is learning firsthand as he apprentices with Joel Gonzalez of Think Dreamer Productions. Working on the set of his mentor’s upcoming film “Crave: The Fast Life,” Daniel had to learn a whole new jargon as the crew communicated with each other over the walkie-talkies, which inspired him to create a fun mini-glossary of on-set lingo on his blog. We’ve shared a few key excerpts with you below.
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